larboard
/ˈlɑɹbɔɹd/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.86 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "[…] harder beset And more endangered than when Argo passed Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks, Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned Charybdis, and by th’ other whirlpool steered."
- "The boat made a sharp half-turn to larboard, and then shot off in its new direction like a thunderbolt."
- "Suddenly the foremost Martian lowered his tube, and discharged a canister of the black gas at the ironclad. It hit her larboard side, and glanced off in an inky jet, that rolled away to seaward, an unfolding torrent of black smoke, from which the ironclad drove clear."
- ""It means to turn to larboard.""
- "The schooner ploughed on Northerly for a minute longer, before tacking again to lay herself half a mile in advance of the nearer corvette, now up on their larboard quarter."
- "The Java, placing herself under the same canvas as her opponent, stood directly for her; and at 2 h. 10 m. P. M., when within half a mile, the Constitution opened a fire from her larboard guns, and a second broadside was discharged before the Java returned the fire from a position close upon the larboard-bow of her antagonist."
Etymology
From Middle English ladde-bord, latebord, most likely referring to the side of the ship on which cargo was loaded. Changed to larboard in the 1500s by association with starboard. (Texts from the 1500s have spellings like lerbord, leereboord, larboord, corresponding to how they spell sterbord, steereboord, starboord.)
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ladde-bord
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈlɑɹbɔɹd/
- British English: /ˈlɑːbɔːd/